Lets face it, most of the gazillion S&S carbs out there have been bought because of some very savvy marketing by S&S. Race winning performance right out of the box? Yeah, give me some of that! The reality is that most conversions to S&S carbs from stock carbs is a waste of time and money with very little or no increase in performance solely as the result of the carburetor. I'm not trashing S&S, they're a fine American company with good products. But. . . I can tune a Triumph to run great with a Amal, a Twin Cam to run great with a Keihin, and a Pan to start and run great with a Linkert. I've got a perfectly functioning Linkert on my Pan. It's damn near 60 years old, simple to rebuild and tune, and I like it.

Obviously I like vintage bikes, but I see no big problem using updated components like electronic ignition or better carburetors.

I update components on my old bikes too where it will make them more reliable, perform better or more easily serviceable. Ignition and charging systems, primarily.

I just happen to believe the the Linkert is a high quality instrument worth keeping on the bike for reasons other than "it's original". Good materials and construction. Holds adjustments and setup almost forever. Easy starting. Easy tuning. Good mileage.

I think their bad reputation comes from the fact that most have been ham-fisted at some point in their lives by now -OR- people have mixed them up with incompatible internal parts thinking they were interchangeable when they weren't.

The float can be a little tricky to setup correctly, but it isn't brain surgery. A little care and testing is all that's needed. At least this has been my experience with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Englishman

I see no reason to cling to Lake injectors or points ignition, simply because the bikes originally ran ok with them. Unless you are some kind of purist doing restorations that is.

Jason!
Modern technological advances have nearly eliminated the need for care and attention, much less eye-hand coordination skills, when servicing non-antique designs.
....Cotten

Cotten- that's today's 'black box' thinking. Rather than diagnose and fix, it's reaplce until it works again. (But you already know this) Jason demonstrated his one kick Linkert last winter to me and had me sold. I currently have two M74's sitting on the shelf ready to go and an S&S E that'll probably stay there a lot longer.

I did not say "Flat spot" I said roll on throttle. you know as well as I do that a non accelerator pump carb doesn't like a cracked throttle, it' more of a smooth action. as for the reason for that same response I just was mentioning to the OP that he needs to decide what his riding history and style will go with witch carb.. his bike his ride, his style.

Aren't you going to redeem yourself by pointing out that the Lake injector was a performance option for early '80s H-D's?

.....Cotten

I was more familiar with the versions for Triumphs. As far as I could tell, they were pretty much carbs with no float bowls that just continually dumped fuel. Didn't pay to forget to turn the petcock off. How well did the HD version work?
Also, I misspoke when I said lake injectors in the first place, I was referring instead to the early 'Lake' carburetors that just relied on fumes being sucked off the top of the gas 'puddle'.

Cotton: I may have failed to read behind the lines, but can you elaborate on reproduction Linkerts.

What's wrong with polishing the bowl. I know S&S says not to polish their carbs because of polishing scuzz being created and and clogging stuff. Is this is the reason on a Linkert? I still don't understand why one shouldn't polish the bowl itself, and then rinse all the residue inside very thoroughly.

This thread is completely subjective. Run what you're comfortable running. If you know and can fix S&S on the side of the road, run S&S. If you know Linkert, or any other carb for that matter, run that.

Pick whatever you're comfortable with. Other than that you're just going to listen to a bunch of grown men pushing their opinions. If you asked what carb originally came on my bike, you'd get an objective answer, not on this subject however.

Me, I'd probably run a Bendix. No reason, I just like Bendix, no better or worse than any other carb. They work well(like any other carb), they're economical and they're infinately rebuildable and you can get parts for them almost anywhere which is nice when you're 500 miles from the parts boxes in your garage.

Cotton: I may have failed to read behind the lines, but can you elaborate on reproduction Linkerts..

Sporticus!

Mas Classics of California produced the first reproductions nearly a decade ago, followed by 45PartsDepot of Holland. The Tedd offerings are probably from further east.
I have only inspected Mr. Mas's prototype; None of the others have crossed my benches.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sporticus

What's wrong with polishing the bowl.

Its worth too damn much.

Polishing ruins it for the savvy market.

You must decide if either you are 'into' the History of a vintage machine, or you are into screwing it up.